Transfers and Waivers

Once you have created your Draft team, the most important thing to know is that your team is not set in stone. In fact, it's likely that as soon as the Draft is over and you look at your players, you'll want to make changes right away. It's true, the timing of the Draft can be critical, but using the market throughout the season is probably the secret to success in a Draft League.

There are three types of market moves in Draft Leagues: trades, free agents, and waivers. To have a chance of snatching the trophy at the end of the season, you should know exactly how these three moments work and that's what we'll explain next.

Trades

• Trades are direct transfers between two teams. There's nothing to know: you offer a player and ask for another one in return, from one of your fellow League members. The players that are to be exchanged can be of different positions, though it should be a fair exchange. Of course, the other team can refuse the trade, just as you can refuse any trade that is offered to you.

• Once accepted, a transfer is put to a vote in the League. If there are four votes against, the transfer is canceled and not processed. Otherwise, it will be processed within the next 48 hours (or 24 hours, if that is the deadline defined by the Commissioner).

"I can't include one of my players in a trade porposal. Why?"

If a player is unavailable for trading it means he's already part of a previously agreed trade.

"My trade has a "Pending Waivers" label. Why?"

It means that a trade approved in your League but one or more players involved had already played when it was approved. It will be processed along with the weekly waivers.

"Another owner and I agreed to trade but it didn't come through. Why?"

If the trade was agreed between the two of you and didn't come through it was due to bring vetoed by your opponents. Remember that all trades are subject to a league vote.

"Is it possible to trade players between two owners? And 3 or more?"

Yes, it is possible to trade between two owners. Trades of 3 or more are not yet available.

Free Agents

• Since each of the ten teams in the Draft League will have 14 players on their roster, there are still a lot of free players left. These players can be signed at any time by any of the ten teams in the League. To go get a free player, you have to throw away one of your 14 players.

• In Draft Leagues, there is no closing time. All free agents can be signed until the start of their real games. That is, if the last game of the day is on Monday and there are free agents from that game, you can sign them until before the start of the game! But be careful: the players you can send out are those from your team who haven't played or haven't played yet and also those from your bench, regardless of whether they played or not. Players from the team who have already played cannot be transferred.

• One of the most basic uses is swapping players from the same team. For example, you have a player from team X in your team and when the official eleven of that team comes out you realize that your player doesn't play. You can transfer him and sign another X team player who is a starter.

• In big teams it is more difficult, because the vast majority of players will be in someone's squad, but in smaller teams there is almost always a starter who is free on the market.

Waivers

• We have already told you that free agents remain free until they start their games. When the games start they go into the "waiver" status. That is, if there is a game on Friday night, as soon as that game starts, the players of the two teams involved who were free, go to the waiver status. All free players from other games that haven't happened yet remain free.

• This status is a way of promoting balance in the League. To hire a player on waiver status, make a waiver request. It's just like a normal transfer, but it doesn't happen right away. At the end of the journey, waivers are processed. The order of preference is inverse to the order of sorting. That is, when several teams make requests for a waiver for the same player, he will be hired by the team which is placed lower in the classification.

• The most common cases you will find are: free agents who stand out in one or more matches and substitute players from big clubs who will have an opportunity. Imagine that the goalkeeper of one of the greats is sent off. You already know that on the next day the substitute will play. It is natural that several teams try to get this substitute.

• When you have a player who is seriously injured and you really want to get rid of, you can make multiple waiver requests at the same time, if you are not in last place. That is, player Y is seriously injured and you need to get him out of the squad, but you are in 5th place in the League - you can make waiver requests in which you throw out the Y for A, the Y for the B, the Y by C, &c. So even if your first options fail, because teams lower in the standings have also requested, you know you'll have at least the 6th option.

• Players switch to waiver status on three occasions: when they start their games, when new players are added to the League (real team signings) and when they are released by a team in the Draft League.

• The players released by any of the ten teams in the Draft League are the so-called Rolling Waivers. These Rolling Waivers are processed 24 hours after they are released. This avoids backstage moves, such as two people arranging surreptitious exchanges, in which a player was released by one and then hired by the other. Likewise, a player who is signed and then released, does not pass to Rolling Waiver, thus preventing someone from doing so just to prevent other teams from signing that player.